As you probably noticed it has been rather quiet around here lately. This silence has been primarily due to a whole lot of work – leaving very little time to work on getting tasting impressions and posts out. However, don’t be fooled into thinking that booze hasn’t been consumed. It has, actually a lot has, but more for utilitarian purposes.

So it was with much joy that I was able to attend a tasting this afternoon hosted by Suntory’s Mike Miyamoto and Neyah White to sample some of the soon to be released (end of October) Hakushu 12. That’s right, finally another Japanese whisky expression will be released in the US. The Hakushu distillery flavor profile is one of my favorite and the 12 just sings with fresh forest crispness. We posted our impressions of the Hakushu 12 here.

You also really get a sense of the distilleries location in the whisky. Every time I drink Hakushu 12 it brings me back to the storage warehouse at the distillery. You can read a little more about the distillery here in Part 1 and Part 2 of my visit there.

Hakushu is completely different than its Yamazaki brother. I think this bodes well for whatever your opinion is of Yamazaki. If you like the Yamazaki releases, you will be treated to an additional and different whisky in Hakushu. If you aren’t a big fan of Yamazaki, maybe Hakushu will be more to your liking. Either way I highly recommend that you seek out a bottle/dram of Hakushu and give it a try. – Chris